Smart policies at the urban (smart city initiatives) and the regional (smart specialisation Strategies, S3) level, both fostered by the need to better spend the reduced budget available for EU policy‐making, have recently gained much attention. While some attempts have been made to explore the growth potential of the two policies separately, no empirical analysis has considered their joint contribution to regional growth. This paper identifies two types of development (measured as 2008–2010 GDP growth) effects associated to smart policies: one, short‐run, associated to urban smartness initiatives, and a second, long run, linked to S3. Instrumental variables estimates are used to support the conceptual framework suggested for the link between these two types of policies, which are both found to have a positive impact on regional economic performance.